After decades of seeing the ‘older man falls for much younger woman’ cliché in entertainment, we are suddenly confronted with an explosion of storylines showing older women helming age-gap relationships. Films like The Idea of You, A Family Affair, and Babygirl, are breaking with the idea that men are attractive and virile at any age, while women have an expiration date attached to their sexuality. And the latest movie to join this list is Marty Supreme, an upcoming sports drama portraying a sizzling romance between French American heartthrob Timothée Chalamet and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow, who is more than 20 years his senior.

However, the film has already been hit with backlash, after Paltrow revealed that she turned away intimacy coordinators on set.

In October last year, the internet went wild over some paparazzi pictures of Chalamet and Paltrow making out during a scene. And now we finally have the answers why: the Oscar-hungry actor got hired to play real-life table tennis star Marty Reisman. The film is set in the 1950s, during the height of his ping pong career, with Paltrow making her return to the big screen on his side. And in her words, audiences can expect “a lot of sex” in the movie.

“I mean, we have a lot of sex in this movie,” she teased in a new interview with Vanity Fair. “There’s a lot—a lot.”

So the conversation naturally moved on to the use of an intimacy coordinator—a person who ensures that intimacy between actors is handled safely, respectfully, and consensually.

“There’s now something called an intimacy coordinator, which I did not know existed. I was like, ‘Girl, I’m from the era where you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on’…” the actor recalled.

“We said, ‘I think we’re good. You can step a little bit back.’ I don’t know how it is for kids who are starting out, but… if someone is like, ‘Okay, and then he’s going to put his hand here, I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that. I was like, ‘Okay, great. I’m 109 years old. You’re 14’.”

These comments quickly ignited backlash, with many netizens fearing that the actor was setting a bad precedent that could be exploited to create unsafe work conditions for lesser-known, and more vulnerable entertainers.

Gwyneth Paltrow telling intimacy coordinators to “back up a little” pic.twitter.com/XO3iccVaMw

— T (@GuadagninoFilms) March 18, 2025

look I get it if you’re at the career status and industry experience level of Gwyneth Paltrow you probably dont need the same hands on support with a sex scene as other actresses, but Madisons been in like 3 things and saying the same line, NEITHER director is owning the choice.

— Girl (@SummerOfFilm) March 18, 2025

Some of these actors should bear in mind there are going to be exploitative sets where a vulnerable person is going to ask for a IC and hear “okay sure, but, you know, Gwyneth Paltrow says she didn’t need one, Mikey Madison who just won the Oscar didn’t, you sure you need this?” https://t.co/HJtuq2f41q

— beeves (@BeevesMe) March 19, 2025

gwyneth paltrow saying “we didn’t have that back then and we’re good” is the same thing as parents who always say “my parents used to hit me back then and i’m fine” LIKE NO YOU’RE NOT why do u want to put the new generation going through the same horrible thing you did 😭 https://t.co/p5Xry8qc0b

— sal ෆ tara anu (@tpmbysoty) March 19, 2025

We did not survive emilia perez marketing era to go straight to gwyneth paltrow campaigning 🫠 https://t.co/oitwhnUzDq

— yasi (@elliysmn) March 18, 2025

Of course, Paltrow is not the only actor who has been quite casual about the use of sex-scene advisers. Emma Thompson, Jennifer Aniston, Kim Basinger, and Mikey Madison have all publicly admitted to rejecting them in their projects, after being given the choice.

Thompson specifically has defended their overall presence on set, but still opted to shoot without one during her filming of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, a project that features a large amount of nudity and sexual activity. It is an interesting contradiction that highlights the need to install safeguards on set, but also the fact that actors ultimately prefer choice when it comes to filming sensitive material.